TORONTO – The Ryerson Rams women's basketball team used a strong second half to defeat the visiting Brock Badgers 74-67 on Wednesday night in front of a raucous hometown crowd at the Mattamy Athletic Centre.
BOXSCORE
Keneca Pingue-Giles (Winnipeg, Man.) had a game-high 21 points in the victory while Sofia Paska (Etobicoke, Ont.) posted her sixth double-double of the season with 14 points and 11 rebounds. Mariah Nunes (Ajax, Ont.) added 18 points in the win while Siki Jez (Kitchener, Ont.) had a game-high 13 rebounds.
The Rams seemed to need time to adjust to a very loud atmosphere and came out cold to start the first quarter. Once some shots started to fall the Rams settled in and trailed by just two, 18-16, after the opening quarter.
“I think we were a little overhyped and were tight shooting the ball,” said coach Carly Clarke on the team's early struggles. “We also settled at times for the shots that they wanted us to take so we talked about being a little more patient on offence.”
The Badgers continued their defensive pressure into the second quarter and limited Ryerson to just 14 points while adding 21 of their own to hold a 39-30 lead over the No. 5 Rams at halftime.
In the third, it was the Rams who turned up the pressure and finally got rolling on offence. A 9-2 run to close the quarter gave the Rams their first lead and the home side headed into the fourth with a 54-49 advantage.
“Our third quarter was great; we've gone into a couple games this season down at half and haven't had a great response but I thought our composure today was awesome and we really rose to the occasion, especially on the defensive end in the third quarter,” said Clarke.
The two teams went toe-to-toe in the fourth quarter. Some key plays from Mariah Nunes guided the Rams down the stretch as she connected from downtown to give Ryerson a 68-64 lead with 1:50 to go then she picked up an offensive rebound which led to a Pingue-Giles bucket which made the lead five at 72-67 with less than a minute remaining.
Free throws rounded out the Rams scoring as they took the 74-67 victory.
Brock's Kate Harpur had a team-high 14 points and 12 rebounds in the losing effort.
The Rams improve to 10-3 on the season while Brock falls to 7-5 on the year. Ryerson is back in action on Friday, February 5 when they host the Laurier Golden Hawks (6-7) at 6:00 p.m.
